DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Application is a National Stage application of PCT/CN2022/128710. Priority to PCT/CN2022/128710 with a priority date of 10/31/2022 is acknowledged under 35 USC 119(e) and 37 CFR 1.78.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements dated 07/09/2025 and 04/01/2026 have been considered and placed in the application file.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 3-4, 13-15, 19, 22, 24, and 33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhuang et al. (CN 111815743 A; hereinafter "Zhuang") in view of Chan et al. ("Two Methods for Creating Chinese Painting". Proceedings of the 10th Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications (09 Oct 2002). https://people.tamu.edu/~ergun/research/artisticdepiction/papers/pg02.pdf; hereinafter "Chan").
Regarding claim 1, Zhuang teaches: A display device, comprising a display screen and a controller ([0019] and [0060] describe a device with an interactive screen which collects and processes information, suggesting the presence of some form of controller/processor), wherein the display screen is configured to display a content (the purpose of the invention is “beautifying digital ink handwriting” ([0006]), suggesting that the modified digital ink handwriting is displayed); and the controller is configured to:
acquire track point information of track points in a writing track of a user ([0073] “Generally speaking, the data collected by the device from user writing is a series of discrete points.”);
determine a stroke corresponding to the track points according to the track point information of the track points, with the stroke comprises a stroke contour ([0073] “Therefore, before beautifying the data, it is necessary to use some efficient methods to fit these discrete point sequences with as few curves as possible. This invention uses Bézier curves for fitting.”; [0081] and onwards teaches different scenarios of fitting Bezier curves to a user’s input track points); and
control the display screen to display the stroke ([0006] “To address the problems existing in the prior art, this invention provides a method for beautifying digital ink handwriting. While preserving the user's writing style, it beautifies the trajectory and outline of the handwritten font. It is applicable to both ordinary non-pressure-sensitive devices and special pressure-sensitive devices.” – it is suggested that the beautified handwriting is displayed on the device).
Zhuang does not explicitly teach: divide the stroke contour into K sub-contours, and selecting a part of sub-contours from the K sub-contours to perform pixel filling on the part of sub-contours, with an extending direction in which the stroke contour extends being the same as an extending direction in which the sub-contours extend, and K being an integer greater than 1.
Chan teaches: divide the stroke contour into K sub-contours, and selecting a part of sub-contours from the K sub-contours to perform pixel filling on the part of sub-contours, with an extending direction in which the stroke contour extends being the same as an extending direction in which the sub-contours extend, and K being an integer greater than 1 (pg. 5 col. 2 “In our brush model, each bristle draws a line on the paper. Combining all the lines that each bristle draws make a stroke.”; fig. 10 shows brush cross-section; fig. 12 and 13 show examples of brush stroke consisting of multiple sub-strokes extending in the same direction;
pg. 5 col. 2 “When ink is added to a brush, some bristles are randomly selected and their ink content is increased by a random amount. Also, our model implements the “ink stealing” effect [13]. As the artist paints a stroke, a bristle can steal ink from neighboring bristles. This allows the possibility of fei bai effect because some bristles can dry up completely and then regain ink by stealing from others.” – this suggests that at a particular time, not all sub-strokes may be filled because they may not all have (simulated) ink).
Zhuang and Chan are analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of simulating brush strokes for Chinese calligraphy. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the invention of Zhuang with the teachings of Chan to divide a brush stroke into multiple sub-strokes based on individual simulated bristles. The motivation would have been to more accurately simulate the behavior of a real brush, including the “fei bai” effect as described by Chan.
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to:
randomly select a part of sub-contours from the K sub-contours to perform pixel filling on the part of sub-contours (Chan pg. 5 col. 2 “When ink is added to a brush, some bristles are randomly selected and their ink content is increased by a random amount. Also, our model implements the “ink stealing” effect [13]. As the artist paints a stroke, a bristle can steal ink from neighboring bristles. This allows the possibility of fei bai effect because some bristles can dry up completely and then regain ink by stealing from others.”); or
select a part of sub-contours from the K sub-contours to randomly perform pixel filling on the part of sub-contours.
The motivation for combining the invention of Zhuang with the teachings of Chan would have been to more accurately simulate the behavior of a real brush, as described for the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to:
select a part of sub-contours from the K sub-contours to perform pixel filling on the part of sub-contours, according to generated K random numbers and a corresponding relation between the random numbers and the sub-contours (Chan pg. 5 col. 2 “When ink is added to a brush, some bristles are randomly selected and their ink content is increased by a random amount. Also, our model implements the “ink stealing” effect [13]. As the artist paints a stroke, a bristle can steal ink from neighboring bristles. This allows the possibility of fei bai effect because some bristles can dry up completely and then regain ink by stealing from others.” – the quantity of ink for each bristle is randomized, suggesting that a random value is generated for each of the K sub-strokes, with a sub-stroke made by each bristle).
The motivation for combining the invention of Zhuang with the teachings of Chan would have been to more accurately simulate the behavior of a real brush, as described for the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the stroke contour of the stroke corresponding to the track points by:
fitting coordinate information of the track points to obtain a fit curve (Zhuang [0073] “Generally speaking, the data collected by the device from user writing is a series of discrete points. It would be extremely difficult to operate directly on these irregular discrete sampling points. Therefore, before beautifying the data, it is necessary to use some efficient methods to fit these discrete point sequences with as few curves as possible. This invention uses Bézier curves for fitting.”;
[0081] “S22: When the user writes on the screen, at least 3 trajectory points are sampled…”
[0082] “S23: When the number of collected trajectory points is equal to 3, the connection points q0, q1, q2, and q3 of the Bézier curve are selected in the following way…”
[0084] “S24: When the number of collected trajectory points is greater than 3, the connection points q0, q1, q2, and q3 of the Bézier curve are selected in the following way…”);
selecting a plurality of fit track points from the fit curve, with the plurality of fit track points comprising at least three first fit track points corresponding to the track points (Zhuang [0060] “During the user's writing process on the mobile device screen, the screen can acquire a series of trajectory points…” – in this case the claimed “fit track points” and the claimed “track points” are the same);
determining a stroke contour of the plurality of fit track points according to coordinate information of the fit track points and a writing speed and a writing pressure at the track points corresponding to the first fit track points (Zhuang [0060] “During the user's writing process on the mobile device screen, the screen can acquire a series of trajectory points containing key parameter information, such as time, pressure, and the contact area between the finger and the screen.”;
[0064] “Speed and pressure play a decisive role in the width of the current trajectory point pn. During brush writing, when the pressure is constant, the slower the writing speed, the thicker the stroke, and the faster the writing speed, the thinner the stroke. When the writing speed is constant, the greater the pressure on the brush tip, the thicker the stroke, and the less the pressure on the brush tip, the thinner the stroke.” – it is suggested that writing speed is derived from time information at each trajectory point); and
taking the stroke contour of the plurality of fit track points as the stroke contour corresponding to the track points (the Bezier curve is used as the finalized stroke contour:
Zhuang [0109] “In real calligraphy, the shape of the contact surface between the brush bristles and the paper is similar to that of a raindrop. Therefore, this invention also uses a raindrop-shaped brush as the basic texture brush shape. By splicing the raindrop model on the trajectory points, extracting the outer contour, smoothing the outer contour using Bezier interpolation, and finally filling the contour, a solid font is obtained.”
[0110] “Referring to Figures 9 and 10, raindrop contours with width information are stitched onto the smoothed Bézier trajectory points. Points P0, P1, P2, and P3 are detected by the convex hull detection algorithm to generate a closed Bézier contour.”).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 13, wherein the controller is configured to, according to the coordinate information of the plurality of fit track points and the writing speed and the writing pressure at the track points corresponding to the first fit track points:
determine a position of the stroke contour according to the coordinate information of the plurality of fit track points ([0060] “During the user's writing process on the mobile device screen, the screen can acquire a series of trajectory points containing key parameter information, such as time, pressure, and the contact area between the finger and the screen. The collected writing trajectory points are recorded as p1(x1,y1,t1,f1,s1), p2(x2,y2,t2,f2,s2), ..., pn(xn,yn,tn,fn,sn), where (xi,yi) are the coordinates of point pi, ti is the time when point pi is obtained, fi is the pressure value of point pi, and si is the contact area between the finger and the screen of the mobile device at point pi.”;
[0081] to [0085] describes generating a Bezier curve based on the sampled coordinate points as previously discussed in the rejection of claim 13); and
determine a width of the stroke contour according to the writing speed and the writing pressure at the track points corresponding to the first fit track points (Zhuang [0064] “Speed and pressure play a decisive role in the width of the current trajectory point pn. During brush writing, when the pressure is constant, the slower the writing speed, the thicker the stroke, and the faster the writing speed, the thinner the stroke. When the writing speed is constant, the greater the pressure on the brush tip, the thicker the stroke, and the less the pressure on the brush tip, the thinner the stroke.”).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 14, wherein the controller is configured to:
determine a line width at a first fit track point (Zhuang [0069] “Therefore, the following width model is adopted in step S1 of this invention:”
[0071] explains the formula for line width: “In the above formula, wn is the width of the current point…”) according to a preset maximum line width, a preset minimum line width (Zhuang [0071] “…wmax is the maximum width of the stroke, wmin is the minimum width of the stroke…”), a preset weight factor (Zhuang [0071] “…θ,φ,β,γ,μ,λ are empirical parameters…), and the writing speed and the writing pressure at the track point corresponding to the first fit track point (Zhuang [0071] “…vn is the velocity of the current trajectory point, fn is the pressure value of the current trajectory point…”), with the preset weight factor indicating a sensitivity parameter of a response adjustment of the line width for different factors (Zhuang [0071] “…θ,φ,β,γ,μ,λ are empirical parameters that control the width wn to vary between the maximum width wmax and the minimum width wmin …”);
determine line widths at the fit track points based on interpolation operation according to line widths at at least three first fit track points (Zhuang [0107] The user's original handwriting trajectory can be beautified to achieve a writing effect similar to real calligraphy. The width of the extended parts at the beginning and end is reduced by gradually halving the width of the strokes at the end. The initial rendering effect is obtained based on the width value of each interpolation point obtained from the previous width model. Users can also adjust the width parameter to make the overall width value thicker or thinner proportionally to achieve different font effects. See Figure 8 for specific effects.;
at least 3 trajectory points were sampled from the user’s handwriting as stated in [0081] and as discussed in the rejection of claims 13 and 14); and
determining the width of the stroke contour according to the line widths at the fit track points (Zhuang [0109] “By splicing the raindrop model on the trajectory points, extracting the outer contour, smoothing the outer contour using Bezier interpolation, and finally filling the contour, a solid font is obtained.”),
wherein after determining the line widths at the fit track points based on the interpolation operation according to the line widths at at least three first fit track points, the controller is further configured to:
smooth the line widths at the fit track points according to first line widths of history fit track points corresponding to history track points of the track points, to obtain smoothed line widths at the fit track points, with the historical track points of the track points being a plurality of track points continuously received before receiving the track points, and the historical fit track points corresponding to the historical track points being coordinate points on a fit curve obtained by fitting the historical track points (Zhuang [0109] “By splicing the raindrop model on the trajectory points, extracting the outer contour, smoothing the outer contour using Bezier interpolation, and finally filling the contour, a solid font is obtained.”),
wherein the controller is configured to:
determine the smoothed line widths at the fit track points according to the first line widths at the history fit track points, the line widths at the fit track points and a preset number of the history fit track points (Zhuang, interpolated outer contour is determined based on the original sampled trajectory points from the user’s writing, from which width information was determined, as discussed in the rejection for claim 14).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, wherein, in the part of sub-contours selected, a total number of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed continuously is less than a number threshold value; or in the part of sub-contours selected, a total number of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed continuously in a same filling manner is less than a number threshold value (Chan pg. 5 col. 2 “When ink is added to a brush, some bristles are randomly selected and their ink content is increased by a random amount. Also, our model implements the “ink stealing” effect [13]. As the artist paints a stroke, a bristle can steal ink from neighboring bristles. This allows the possibility of fei bai effect because some bristles can dry up completely and then regain ink by stealing from others.”
The number of simulated bristles with a high amount of ink to perform the claimed “continuous filling” must necessarily be less than the total number of simulated bristles, which may be considered the “number threshold value”).
The motivation for combining the invention of Zhuang with the teachings of Chan would have been to more accurately simulate the behavior of a real brush, as described for the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 22, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, wherein
a total number of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed is decreased along with an increase of the writing speed at the track points; or
a total number of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is not to be performed is increased along with the increase of the writing speed at the track points; or
a total number of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed is increased along with an increase of the writing pressure at the track points (Chan fig. 11 “The pressure threshold of the longer bristles in the middle part of the brush is smaller, i.e. less pressure is needed for them to touch the paper while the pressure threshold of the shorter bristles on the side is larger.” – therefore more filled sub-contours are produced from the higher number of bristles); or
a total number of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is not to be performed is decreased along with the increase of the writing pressure at the track points.
Regarding claim 24, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, wherein
a density of pixel filling in the stroke contour is decreased along with an increase of the writing speed at the track points; or
a density without pixel filling in the stroke contour is increased along with the increase of the writing speed at the track points; or
a density of pixel filling in the stroke contour is increased along with an increase of the writing pressure at the track points (Chan fig. 11 “The pressure threshold of the longer bristles in the middle part of the brush is smaller, i.e. less pressure is needed for them to touch the paper while the pressure threshold of the shorter bristles on the side is larger.”); or
a density without pixel filling in the stroke contour is decreased along with the increase of the writing pressure at the track points;
wherein the density of pixel filling indicates a ratio of a total number of the sub-contours to be filled to K (Chan fig. 11, more of the simulated bristles are touching the page when compared to the total number of bristles, indicating a higher ratio – a bristle touching the page can be considered to generate a filled sub-contour).
The motivation for combining the invention of Zhuang with the teachings of Chan would have been to more accurately simulate the behavior of a real brush, as described for the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 33, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:
in response to that a total number of the track points acquired exceeds a preset track point number threshold, adjust a position of the sub-contour on which pixel filling is to be performed,
wherein the controller is configured to:
adjust positions of a preset number of sub-contours at an edge of the stroke contour, in the sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed (Zhuang [0082] and [0084] teach that when generating a Bezier curve, trajectories with exactly 3 sampled points are treated differently than trajectories with more than 3 sampled points:
[0082] “S23: When the number of collected trajectory points is equal to 3, the connection points q0, q1, q2, and q3 of the Bézier curve are selected in the following way:…”
[0084] “S24: When the number of collected trajectory points is greater than 3, the connection points q0, q1, q2, and q3 of the Bézier curve are selected in the following way:…”;
In the combined invention of Zhuang in view of Chan as previously discussed in the rejection of claim 1, the positions of the sub-contours as taught by Chan would be affected by the adjustment of the position of the main contour of Zhuang as explained above).
The motivation for combining the invention of Zhuang with the teachings of Chan would have been to more accurately simulate the behavior of a real brush, as described for the rejection of claim 1.
Claim(s) 2 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhuang (CN 111815743 A) in view of Chan ("Two Methods for Creating Chinese Painting") as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Procreate Folio ("Looking for rake brushes" (2018). https://folio.procreate.com/discussions/10/1/26674; hereinafter "Procreate").
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach: wherein there is at least one sub-contour on which pixel filling is not to be performed between at least two sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed.
Procreate teaches: wherein there is at least one sub-contour on which pixel filling is not to be performed between at least two sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed (rake brushes, as shown, allow a user to digitally produce a brush stroke consisting of alternating filled and unfilled sections).
Procreate is analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of generating synthesized brush strokes. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan with the teachings of Procreate to include a rake brush with alternating filled and unfilled sections. The motivation would have been for artistic preference.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach: wherein the controller is configured to:
perform pixel filling on the part of sub-contours selected in different filling manners alternately.
Procreate teaches: perform pixel filling on the part of sub-contours selected in different filling manners alternately (rake brushes, as shown, allow a user to digitally produce a brush stroke consisting of alternating filled and unfilled sections).
The motivation for combining the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan with the teachings of Procreate would have been for artistic preference, as described for the rejection of claim 2.
Claim(s) 10 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhuang (CN 111815743 A) in view of Chan ("Two Methods for Creating Chinese Painting") as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of PowerPointy ("PowerPoint Secrets: Merge Shapes" (23 Jul 2019). https://pptcrafter.wordpress.com/2019/07/23/powerpoint-secrets-merge-shapes/).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan and further in view of Procreate teaches: The device according to claim 8, but does not explicitly teach: wherein the controller is further configured to:
divide continuous sub-contours in the part of sub-contours selected into one contour group, to perform pixel filling on the sub-contours in the contour group at once in a same filling manner.
PowerPointy teaches: divide continuous sub-contours in the part of sub-contours selected into one contour group, to perform pixel filling on the sub-contours in the contour group at once in a same filling manner (“The Group operation is like Union; several objects are treated as a unit. However, objects within a Group can be separately selected and you can recover the component objects – not possible with Union. Also, in general, the components of a Group can have different properties… Other formats treat the Group as a single object (Shadow, Gradient Fill, Picture Fill, Glow and 3D Depth/Rotate)” – suggests that grouped shapes may be filled together simultaneously).
PowerPointy is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same problem of performing particular digital editing operations for graphic design. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan and Procreate with the teachings of PowerPointy to group objects to which similar operations are being performed. The motivation would have been to improve efficiency, either in terms of organization or computation.
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan and further in view of Procreate and PowerPointy teaches: The device according to claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to:
randomly select a filling manner from a plurality of filling manners with a same probability, to perform pixel filling on the sub-contours in the contour group at once in the filling manner; or
randomly select a filling manner from a plurality of filling manners with different probabilities, to perform pixel filling on the sub-contours in the contour group at once in the filling manner, wherein the filling manners are in one-to-one correspondence with the probabilities (Chan pg. 5 col. 2 “When ink is added to a brush, some bristles are randomly selected and their ink content is increased by a random amount. Also, our model implements the “ink stealing” effect [13]. As the artist paints a stroke, a bristle can steal ink from neighboring bristles. This allows the possibility of fei bai effect because some bristles can dry up completely and then regain ink by stealing from others.” – the broadest reasonable interpretation of “a plurality of filling manners” can be considered to include the randomized quantities of ink for each bristle, including having no ink).
The motivation for applying the cited teachings of Chan to the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan and further in view of Procreate and Powerpointy would have been similar to the motivation for combining the inventions of Zhuang and Chan as described in the rejection of claim 1.
Claim(s) 28 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhuang (CN 111815743 A) in view of Chan ("Two Methods for Creating Chinese Painting") as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Guo et al. ("The simulation of the half-dry stroke based on the force feedback technology". Eighth International Conference on Graphic and Image Processing (Oct 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2266338; hereinafter "Guo").
Regarding claim 28, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach: wherein in response to that the stroke is a left-falling stroke, the further a position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour is to left, the less a probability of performing pixel filling on the sub-contour is; or
the further the position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour is to right, the greater the probability of performing pixel filling on the sub-contour is,
in response to that a filling manner of the sub-contour is scatter filling and the stroke is a left-falling stroke,
the further a position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour is to left, the less a scatter density of scatter filling performed on the sub-contour is; or,
the further the position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour to right, the greater the scatter density of scatter filling performed on the sub-contour is.
Guo teaches that when painting a “half-dry” calligraphic stroke, the area of the stroke opposite the direction of the brush is less dense (section 4.1 “The Half-dry Texture Database”: “When it is painted with the techniques of Cefeng and Pianfeng, the brush tip is on one side of the painting stroke, therefore the hollow zones mainly appear on periphery of the stroke.” Therefore, if the teachings of Guo were to be applied to the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan, the sub-contours on the opposite side of the stroke to the brush would be less likely to be filled – if the stroke is left-falling, then the opposite side would be on the left.
Guo is analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of simulating brush strokes for Chinese calligraphy. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan with the teachings of Guo to adjust the fill likelihood of sub-strokes depending on the direction and orientation of a brush stroke. The motivation would have been to replicate the “half-dry” stroke style, which is similar to styles discussed in Chan.
Regarding claim 30, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach: wherein in response to that the stroke is a right-falling stroke, the further a position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour is to right, the less a probability of performing pixel filling on the sub-contour is; or
the further the position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour is to left, the greater the probability of performing filling on the sub-contour is,
in response to that a filling manner of the sub-contour is scatter filling and the stroke is a right-falling stroke, the further a position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour is to right, the less a scatter density of scatter filling performed on the sub-contour is; or
the further the position of the sub-contour in the stroke contour is to left, the greater the scatter density of scatter filling performed on the sub-contour is.
Guo teaches that when painting a “half-dry” calligraphic stroke, the area of the stroke opposite the direction of the brush is less dense (section 4.1 “The Half-dry Texture Database”: “When it is painted with the techniques of Cefeng and Pianfeng, the brush tip is on one side of the painting stroke, therefore the hollow zones mainly appear on periphery of the stroke.” Therefore, if the teachings of Guo were to be applied to the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan, the sub-contours on the opposite side of the stroke to the brush would be less likely to be filled – if the stroke is right-falling, then the opposite side would be on the right.
Guo is analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of simulating brush strokes for Chinese calligraphy. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan with the teachings of Guo to adjust the fill likelihood of sub-strokes depending on the direction and orientation of a brush stroke. The motivation would have been to replicate the “half-dry” stroke style, which is similar to styles discussed in Chan.
Claim(s) 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhuang (CN 111815743 A) in view of Chan ("Two Methods for Creating Chinese Painting") as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Xu et al. ("A solid model based virtual hairy brush". Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 21, no. 3 (Sep 2002), pp. 299-308. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8659.00589; hereinafter "Xu").
Regarding claim 32, the combination of Zhuang in view of Chan teaches: The device according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach: wherein the controller is configured to:
in response to that a writing speed at the track points is greater than a speed threshold value and/or a writing pressure at the track points is less than a pressure threshold value, divide the stroke contour into the K sub-contours.
Xu teaches: in response to that a writing speed at the track points is greater than a speed threshold value and/or a writing pressure at the track points is less than a pressure threshold value, divide the stroke contour into the K sub-contours (pg. 304 section 5.5 “Splitting of the hairy brush”: “There is a threshold tre which specifies the extent to which WPi can be deformed. When this threshold is reached or exceeded, the current writing primitive will split into several smaller writing primitives. This simulates the “branching out” behavior of the virtual hairy brush during the writing process.”;
Pg. 303 section 5.1 “Estimating the physical conditions of the brush” suggests that the deformation of WPi is based at least in part on writing pressure).
Xu is analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of simulating brush strokes for Chinese calligraphy. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the invention of Zhuang in view of Chan with the teachings of Xu to only divide the brush into multiple bristles when a certain threshold related to writing pressure is reached. The motivation would have been to better simulate the behavior of a real brush and/or to improve computational efficiency.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 20, and 26 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 5: The prior art of record teaches a correlation between writing pressure and a particular parameter which could be considered to correspond with the claimed “half-dry stroke parameter” (Zhuang [0064] and onward, Chan fig. 11 and 14). Jin et al. (“Image Auto-generation of Brush Modeling and Ink Diffusion”) teaches parameters that are associated with producing the claimed “half-dry” brush style.
However, the prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitations of claim 5, in particular the following limitations:
calculate a product value of an average value of the K random numbers and a half-dry stroke parameter, with the half-dry stroke parameter being configured to control a total number of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed;
in response to any random number is greater than the product value, determine to perform pixel filling on the sub-contour corresponding to the random number; and
in response to that any random number is less than or equal to the product value, determine not to perform pixel filling on the sub-contour corresponding to the random number.
Claim 20: the prior art of record teaches a correlation between writing speed and pressure and stroke width as explained in the rejection of claims 13, 14, and 15. However, the prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitations of claim 20, in particular the limitation of determining either a ratio of a total width of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is to be performed to a width of the stroke contour, or a ratio of a total width of the sub-contours on which pixel filling is not to be performed to the width of the stroke contour. Chan teaches that as writing pressure increases, the number of simulated bristles touching the paper (producing filled sub-contours) increases (fig. 11). However, it also teaches that as writing pressure increases, the total width of the stroke contour also increases (fig. 14). It is not possible to determine the relative increase of one compared to the other using the information provided by Chan.
Claim 26: The prior art of record teaches a correlation between stroke contour filling and writing pressure as explained in the rejection of claims 22 and 24. However, the prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitations of claim 26, in particular the following limitations:
wherein in response to that a filling manner of the sub-contour comprises scatter filling, a probability corresponding to the scatter filling is configured to control a total number of the sub-contour to be filled by scatter filling.
References Cited
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zhu et al. (CN 112905102 A) teaches a method of generating synthesized brush strokes involving determining a writing trajectory and generating multiple writing sub-trajectories, and determining filling based on a fill trajectory.
Wu et al. (CN 102436348 A) teaches a method of generating synthesized Chinese calligraphic brush strokes.
Conclusion
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/BENJAMIN TOM STATZ/Examiner, Art Unit 2611
/TAMMY GODDARD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2611
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